node-oidc-provider vs Ory Kratos
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | node-oidc-provider | Ory Kratos |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 88 · Excellent | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | source, docker | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,816 | ★ 13,888 |
| First released | 2016 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Auth0, Okta | Auth0, Firebase Auth |
What are node-oidc-provider and Ory Kratos?
node-oidc-provider
node-oidc-provider is an open-source, certified OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 provider implementation for Node.js. It can be self-hosted to issue tokens and act as an identity provider for applications.
- Certified OIDC provider
- OAuth 2.0 support
- Embeddable in Node apps
- Standards compliant
Ory Kratos
Ory Kratos is an API-first identity and user management system. It handles login, registration, profile management, account recovery and multi-factor authentication without prescribing a user interface.
- Headless API for full UI control
- Self-service flows for login and recovery
- Pluggable MFA including TOTP and WebAuthn
- Cloud-native and stateless design
node-oidc-provider vs Ory Kratos: key differences
Node-oidc-provider is written in JavaScript, while Ory Kratos is built with Go. Licensing differs — MIT for node-oidc-provider versus Apache-2.0 for Ory Kratos. Node-oidc-provider is the more established project (first released 2016), while Ory Kratos arrived in 2020. Ory Kratos has the considerably larger community, at 13,888 GitHub stars versus 3,816.
Why pick each one
Choose node-oidc-provider if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
Choose Ory Kratos if…
- Extremely flexible architecture
- Excellent for custom frontends
Watch out for
- Requires building your own UI
- Complex initial setup
Frequently asked questions
Is node-oidc-provider or Ory Kratos better?
Neither is universally better. Ory Kratos has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are node-oidc-provider and Ory Kratos free and open-source?
Yes. node-oidc-provider is licensed under MIT and Ory Kratos under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run node-oidc-provider and Ory Kratos with Docker?
node-oidc-provider: yes. Ory Kratos: yes.